Stephen King’s The Stand Headed to the Big Screen

Stephen King’s massive tome “The Stand” is one of the few Stephen King novels that I have read cover to cover. It’s got a killer premise, and it moves very well despite its huge size and ginormous ensemble cast. I also enjoyed the mini-series from the ’90s, starring Rob Lowe and Gary Sinise, not to mention Molly Ringwald and Laura San Giacomo.

Now Warner Bros. and CBS Films are teaming up to bring King’s post-apocalyptic/horror story to the big screen, though it’s unsure if they’re planning a single movie, or a series of movies. The studios will be deciding that when they start meeting with writers to hear ideas in the coming weeks.

Given that the original novel clocks in at a whopping 800-plus pages, the notion of squeezing all of “The Stand” into a single movie seems a tad ambitious, if not downright impossible. Which is probably why King’s novels, given their length, have always made good fodder for a mini-series, whereas his short stories could be readily adapted into single movies.

“The Stand” takes place in an America ravaged by a virus that has killed off a great percentage of the population. The survivors, an eclectic bunch that includes a psychic old black woman and a mute young man, must gather to battle the evil Randall Flagg, who seems to be working for a supernatural power. The survivors are split between good and evil, a familiar theme in King’s stories.

And like a lot of King’s novels, I was very underwhelmed by the ending to “The Stand”, so here’s hoping the writers the studios are meeting with comes up with a better, more exciting ending.